Former Porsche SE Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking and ex-Chief Financial Officer Holger Haerter were charged with market manipulation over the use of options in a failed bid to take over Volkswagen AG.

The indictment was filed after more than three years of investigations into claims Porsche misled investors in 2008 when it denied that it sought to buy VW. The company in October of that year disclosed a plan to take control of the carmaker.

“The investigation found the suspects in February 2008 at the latest made the decision to increase Porsche’s share in Volkswagen to 75 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to prepare a takeover,” Claudia Krauth, spokeswoman for Stuttgart prosecutors, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Legal wrangling, stemming from Porsche’s bid for VW, ultimately scuttled a planned merger between the two companies last year. The risks of billions of euros in damages have been a drag on Porsche’s share price. The value of its VW holding is about 24 billion euros ($31.9 billion).

Porsche shares fell as much as 2 percent to 56.83 euros and were down 1.11 cents as of 1:37 p.m. in Frankfurt trading. The stock has climbed 38 percent this year, valuing the company at 17.5 billion euros.

In the period between March 10 and October 2, 2008, Porsche denied at least five times that it planned to increase its VW stake to 75 percent, Krauth said. The denials influenced VW’s share price, she said.

Haerter Trial

The Regional Court of Stuttgart now has to decide whether the case may proceed. Haerter is currently standing trial at that court in a related case claiming he and other Porsche managers made false statements when refinancing a 10 billion- euro loan.

The part of the probe covering allegations of breach of trust was dropped because they couldn’t be proved with the “necessary degree of certainty,” Krauth said. The two men and Porsche have rejected the allegations.

The charges won’t succeed, Anne Wehnert and Hanns Feigen, lawyers for the two men, said in a joint statement. Dropping the breach of trust probe for lack of evidence is tantamount to an acquittal, they said.

The allegations shrank during the probe from 14 to five cases of information-based market manipulation, they said. Prosecutors had dropped the part of the probe looking into trade-based market manipulation claims in February of last year.

Short Sellers

“We’re astonished to note the prosecution with this indictment wants to side with unknown short sellers, of all people, who made highly speculative and irrational bets against the VW stock,” the men’s lawyers said.

Albrecht Bamler, a spokesman for Porsche, said the charges apply to Wiedeking and Haerter, who are no longer part of the company, and declined to comment further.

Porsche’s denials in 2008 caused investors to sell Volkswagen shares and increase short positions, Krauth said. At the same time, Porsche started to prepare the bid by building up options, she said, citing the probe’s findings.

The men had been investigated for breach of trust because prosecutors suspected they put the company at the risk of bankruptcy with the options strategy. While the findings confirmed the number of VW options Porsche held in October 2008 would have exhausted Porsche’s liquidity “multiple times” had the stock dropped, the prosecutor can’t prove the men foresaw that risk when buying the derivatives earlier, Krauth said.

Likely Slump

“The likelihood of such a slump increased during the period the probed examined,” Krauth said. “However, it was no longer possible to sell the options when such a slump was likely enough, because” Porsche then held too many of the instruments to exit the strategy.

“This is clearly negative news given that the case will necessarily take quite a significant length of time, and moreover could well be viewed as supportive for other related actions,” David Arnold, an automotive analyst with Credit Suisse in London, said in an emailed statement today.

The company is also facing civil suits seeking more than 4 billion euros in a Braunschweig court over the issue. Similar cases are also pending in U.K. and U.S. courts.

Plaintiffs in those civil suits have so far failed to get access to findings from the German prosecutors. They may now renew their bids. Any material they may get can also be used in the civil cases.

Civil Suits

Franz Braun, a lawyer representing plaintiffs suing for more than 2 billion euros combined in Braunschweig, said he will seek access to the files as soon as the court has ruled that the charges may go to trial.

“The prosecutors’ allegation are identical, including the dates, with what we say in our suits,” Braun said. “That’s nice, of course.”

Porsche and VW agreed to combine in 2009 after Porsche racked up more than 10 billion euros of debt in its unsuccessful hostile bid. Wiedeking and Haerter left Porsche in July that year. A merger between the two companies was scrapped last year because of the lawsuits.

To avoid further delays, Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW purchased the Porsche auto business, completing the transaction on Aug. 1. The Porsche holding company remains a stock-listed company, whose sole asset now consists of its VW shares.

To the British Empire, Canada was once the place to go for furs and timber — a vast land an ocean away whose resources would be tapped to make beaver pelt hats for fashion-conscious Londoners and wooden masts for the Royal Navy.

These days, however, Brits are pining after a different type of commodity from their former colony: Canadian corporate talent. And their appetite for it shows no sign of abating.

Chris Wattie/ReutersSpeculation in the U.K. is still simmering that the Bank of England is considering Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, to succeed its own governor who leaves in June next year.

Speculation in the U.K. is still simmering that the Bank of England is considering Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, to succeed its own governor who leaves in June next year. The Financial Times, which first reported the story April 17, noted that although Mr. Carney denied that he had any direct contact with the BOE or its supervisory body, no one has disputed the existence of an approach per se. The idea is now believed to have been presented to Mr. Carney through a third party, the newspaper said.

That Mr. Carney, 47, is unlikely to want the job is beside the point. The fact is that many people believe the British government wants a new face at the bank, one who can shake things up at the institution and reverse its slow-moving culture. For the bank and for other British corporations, that new face is increasingly Canadian.

Mr. Carney is only the most recent example of a British crush on Canucks to fill its leadership ranks. In the past two years alone, Britain named Newfoundland-born Moya Greene to fix its Royal Mail, the first non-Brit to hold the chief executive post. The British Airport Authority tapped Montrealer Normand Boivin to run Heathrow as its chief operating officer. And Canary Wharf Group PLC appointed Canadian-Romanian George Iacobescu as chairman of the London property developer.

“The Brits talk about it all the time — about how well Canadian banks have done and how well Canada has done” managing through the financial crisis and last recession, said Michael Lagopoulos, deputy chairman of RBC Wealth Management and president of the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce. “Whether you’re a regulator, central banker, whatever, in the trade Canadians are thought of as people that know what they’re doing.”

Related

Credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service this month called Canada’s bank sector the soundest in the world, citing a combination of strong underlying credit fundamentals and a prudent regulatory environment among the factors for the superior standing. Unlike lenders in the United States, Canadian banks suffered no failures during the financial crisis in 2008.

The ability to navigate trouble is what attracted BAA to Mr. Boivin as well.

In the wake of Heathrow’s “big freeze,” a nasty winter storm in December 2010 that grounded flights at the facility for four days and threw the travel plans of thousands of people into chaos, the airport’s management invited the Canadian, then operations director at Aéroports de Montréal, to give the Brits some advice on how to deal with snow and avoid a repeat of the embarrassment. They were so impressed with what they heard that they hired him.

“We aren’t fishing abroad out of desperation because we don’t have talent at home,” said Anthony Cary, former British high commissioner to Canada from 2007 to 2010. “But we’re open to looking for good people wherever they may be found. And more and more, Canada is seen as an important country … which is extremely well run.”

Britain has a remarkable history of searching abroad to try to find the best management that it can get. Some of its biggest companies are run by foreigners.

London Stock Exchange Group PLC, which cancelled its plan to merge with Canada’s TMX Group last summer because it did not have enough shareholder support for the deal, is run by Frenchman Xavier Rolet. U.K. engineering giant Amec PLC is steered by Samir Brikho, a Lebanese-born Swede. Vodafone Group PLC, the world’s biggest wireless operator, is run by Italian Vittorio Colao as chief executive.

“The U.K. looks like a Petri dish for the globalization of corporate leadership,” FT associate editor Andrew Hill wrote this past week in a column that argued that Mr. Carney’s nationality as “a subject of the Queen” matters far less than his adaptability.

Postmedia News FilesBritain named Newfoundland-born Moya Greene to fix its Royal Mail, the first non-Brit to hold the chief executive post.

According to the latest survey by consultancy Robert Half, the number of non-British chief executives of the 100 biggest U.K.-listed groups has risen to 45 from 41 over the past four years.

The high percentage is partly due to the number of large foreign companies listed in London, Mr. Hill wrote. “But even in Britain, top directors are occasionally recruited on the basis that they will understand the ‘culture’ of the City of London. As Mr. Carney (who studied at Oxford University and later worked for Goldman Sachs in London) is discovering, that can be shorthand for ‘a Brit.’ ”

Canada’s investment in the U.K. is also growing. That naturally translates into more Canadian management in Britain as well, says Ashley Prime, deputy consul general at the British consulate in Toronto.

“This is part of a bigger picture of how Canada is extending itself economically overseas, particularly in the U.K.,” Mr. Prime said in an interview. “It’s great for us. It’s where you put your money.”

Canadian direct investment in the U.K. topped $83-billion in 2011, a 37% increase over 2007. Britain is the second-largest destination for Canadian dollars after the United States.

Canadian pension funds have been among the biggest investors in the U.K. in recent years and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has been particularly active, with more than $3-billion worth of assets in the country including the HS1 high speed rail network and Camelot UK Lotteries. Oil companies have also made significant investments, with Talisman Energy’s capital spending program in the U.K. pegged at $800-million this year alone.

Given the sheer size of Canada’s financial footprint in Britain, it just makes sense that its leadership ranks would also end up there, Mr. Prime said. “The right person for the job is the right person for the job. And it doesn’t matter whether they come from Timbuktu or wherever.”

Thirty years after Canada finally won complete legislative and constitutional freedom from the United Kingdom, it has now won something else from its former colonial master — executive suite envy.

Having a strong brand as a leader within a company, produces significant business benefits. That’s why it’s so important to methodically build and protect your brand as a strong leader. If that brand suffers a setback, your company feels real pain. For example, employees lose confidence in the direction of the company; they spend time looking for other employment opportunities; their desire to innovate decreases; and they cease being strong advocates for your business.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether the damage to your reputation is caused by you or by circumstances beyond your control. The bottom line is that your credibility is on the line and you need to turn perceptions around quickly or your ability to operate as an effective leader will be significantly hampered. If your leader brand is broken, here are three guidelines to repair it:

Assess the damage. When your reputation as a leader takes a hit, it’s equivalent to either a dent in the fender or a complete write-off. Repairing it depends largely on the depth of the damage. Consider the following scenario: your company is undergoing a drastic restructuring. You and your executive team share with your company an evolving vision and possible scenarios. Questions are answered genuinely with compassion and with the information that is available and sharable. You have one-on-one discussions with influencers and people who have been with the company for years to address their concerns. The approach taken is that everyone has contributed to the company’s success and will continue to do so in the short- and long-term. When the reorganization is finally made public, there are some major gaps between what was discussed and the final outcomes. However, the damage to your reputation will be limited because of your pre-planning, managing expectations, active listening and leveraging the executive team. As a result, your reputation is tarnished but not irreparably so.

In contrast, consider the senior executive who publicly announces the launch of a new product and mobilizes considerable company resources to ensure it comes to market with tremendous fanfare. Furthermore, the executive, while hinging future growth on the success of the product, downplays dissenting opinions and neglects internally established processes for mitigating risks. This kind of single-mindedness, even with the best intentions, sets the stage for a complete reputation write-off if the company’s targeted expectations for the product are not achieved.

Choose the right mechanics. Senior executives are committed, action-oriented and energetic professionals who are comfortable with taking ownership. So the idea of refraining from jumping in to repair the damage to their reputation within their own company is a painful proposition. And, in truth, they need to be involved. However, the best strategy is for senior executives to engage their core management team. If the success of social media and social networking has reinforced one message it is this: the credibility of the channel trumps the attractiveness of the message. As a result, use your team as your eyes, your ears and your voice. While they are not charged with making excuses or candy-coating issues, they are responsible for explaining context and providing additional clarification. They should also provide a strong supporting voice that demonstrates that there is unwavering confidence for decisions made and the processes used. Finally, they should reinforce the humanity of the senior executive whose reputation has been damaged.

Drive carefully. Successfully repairing a damaged reputation takes time. And, while it shouldn’t slow down any senior executive’s activities, it will shape which initiatives they should participate in and how these are framed. At the same time, they should look to leverage the credibility that comes from sources external to the company. This includes involving well-respected individuals who have left the company, key industry leaders and the media to portray the senior executive in a more positive light. Finally, senior executives should be seen as taking charge of positive and successful initiatives as well as actively participating in popular company events.

Next month: How to inspire your team during tough economic or organizational times

For more than 15 years, Andrew Brown has helped senior executives develop and implement corporate communications for increasing revenues and enhancing reputations. He has brought to market more than 150 products in a dozen industries and has written more than 300 articles on product innovation, social media, marketing strategies and strategic alliances.

When it comes to the fast-changing world of technology, competition is a very good thing.

It drives product development, spurs continual improvements and drives chief executives to dream big and pursue their next, great tech innovation. But when you’re a fledgling startup with no financial backing and few clients to speak of — basically Filemobile’s situation in 2006 when it launched — duking it out with larger, more established competitors can be a brutal, uphill slog.

Like many other small tech companies, our social media marketing business found a way to compete with rivals in the sector, namely well-established and well-funded competitors such as Pluck and KickApps — both of which have since been acquired.

How we managed this feat is a case study in leveraging past experience and common sense to survive past the crucial two-year startup mark. As mentioned in our last column, we had a pre-existing online fantasy sports business that helped incubate Filemobile and provided a handful of big-name client leads. From that, we leveraged critical lessons to make our new firm a success.

First, like the online fantasy sports business, we chose to operate in a specific market niche. At the time, user-generated content was relatively new and the platforms to capture, moderate and publish it — say, to a major brand or media outlet’s website — were few. KickApps and Pluck were the main players, but both focused on the U.S. market and their platforms were less flexible than Media Factory, which would soon become Filemobile’s main software-as-a-service product suite. We carefully analyzed the features our competitors were offering and tried to serve a niche that they couldn’t. Specifically, we ensured that our platform offered widespread functionality and included application programming interfaces to allow third-party developers to build apps for Media Factory to suit their individual needs. This helped provide a much-needed competitive edge. The move paid off and our early Canadian clients were impressed that a small, local shop — with whom they could have face-to-face contact if necessary — managed to produce a product that could rival those of much larger U.S. firms.

The second lesson was that we didn’t delude ourselves into thinking we could crush those larger competitors. Experience taught us that the odds of a small, unfunded Canadian tech startup challenging U.S.-based behemoths and winning is virtually nil — basically, the same odds of surviving a climb up Mt. Everest in a bathing suit with no ropes. Could you survive and make it to the peak? In theory, yes — in reality, not a chance.

So, we chose to avoid a head-to-head rivalry by initially staying out of their territory altogether and setting up a beach head in Toronto to focus on major GTA-based brands and media companies who might have a need for Media Factory. It was only when we established significant sales in our home market that we began expanding across Canada and the U.S. We also integrated flexible pricing structures into our model, allowing clients to use specific Media Factory modules and scale up as needed. This proved to be another major competitive advantage.

But sometimes competitors aren’t other firms with similar products or services. Sometimes, perception is a tech firm’s greatest rival. We faced two challenges on that front.

First, many firms initially were uncomfortable using a cloud-based service such as Media Factory when operating in the cloud still left managers with more uneasy questions than reassuring answers. Because we were able to land a few key clients through contacts from our pre-existing online fantasy sports platform, we managed to prove to other sales leads that Media Factory was a reliable, stable and secure service. Other tech entrepreneurs be warned: operating in a burgeoning market niche and proving the worth of any new tech product or service takes time and significant effort.

The other major challenge involved saving clients from themselves or their marketing agencies. At that point, many companies were trying to build platforms like Media Factory on their own, or were being sold one-off platforms by large advertising or marketing agencies to use in each of their UGC marketing campaigns — at nearly 10 times the monthly cost of using Media Factory. It took considerable legwork to market the cost-effectiveness, flexibility and utility of leveraging one software-as-a-service platform for multiple projects without the accompanying development costs or headaches. However, with extensive research and countless client presentations, we managed to drive the point home. We even achieved a major competitive coup: after making the case for co-operation, we gradually added several of those agencies as customers and they began deploying Media Factory as their social marketing suite of choice to efficiently build creative solutions for their clients.

Despite the fact that we, like so many other tech startups, faced an uphill competitive climb, we managed to overcome those early challenges and survive. We gradually turned competitive pressures into a motivating tool to drive innovation and keep our competitive fires burning. In hindsight, that relentless and highly daunting competition proved to be one of our greatest assets.

Next time — the fourth installment of our series on how Filemobile survived to the five-year mark: How we served large clients on a skeleton staff.

Steve Hulford, Chief Creative Officer

Ron Watson, Chief Financial Officer

Marc Milgrom, President

Filemobile Inc.

This regular blog aims to provide relevant management insights and highlight industry developments and opportunities, to help technology entrepreneurs start, manage and grow their firms.

As a member of the C-Suite, you gain a tremendous advantage over those competitors who don’t sustain a strong brand within their companies. For example, when your employees believe that you are a powerful leader they are more likely to: feel positive about the direction of the company; feel empowered to innovate; spend less time looking for other employment; enthusiastically recruit other talented professionals; adhere to important policies; and identify opportunities for operational improvement.

To create and sustain a brand as a strong leader within a business, members of the C-suite should follow these three core practices:

Focus your activities. Senior leaders often find themselves drawn into tactical issues. This happens during the planning or implementation of important initiatives such as launching new products, pursuing large prospective clients or wooing high-profile executives. However, focusing too much on tactical issues could hurt a CEO’s reputation. In fact, leaders quickly risk being seen as getting in the way of moving projects forward, slowing down innovation and taking resources away from company-wide priorities. The lesson here: Ask yourself whether a member of your management team is better suited to dealing with the initiative than you are. If not, either secure or train a member of your team so that you, as a member of the C-suite, can keep out of day-to-day issues. You should be focusing your activities on those issues where your attention is needed to ensure the long-term health of your business.

Align your external and internal communications. Ironically, to be seen as a strong leader within a company by its employees, leaders need to devote time building a reputation as a leader outside of the company. To do so effectively means ensuring that those professionals who are responsible for building your public reputation — ghost-writers, speech writers and social media liaisons — work closely with those people who promote your activities within the company. At the same time, leaders need to tap into their executive teams’ credibility. Within your company, your senior colleagues play a tremendous role in reinforcing and amplifying the messages that you, and by extension the company, are an important player in the industry.

Demonstrate your humanity. Corporate leaders have abandoned the notion that in order to be effective they need to be taskmasters who lead by fear and intimidation. Today’s leader has embraced the need to be an effective magnet for talented people, for resources that fund continued growth and for strategic alliances. To successfully attract these elements, leaders must demonstrate their humanity. For example, make sure that you look for opportunities to share stories about your family and out-of-work passions. Also find opportunities to display other positive human attributes such as generosity and compassion. Openly recognizing and rewarding members of your company who embody key corporate values accomplishes this while reinforcing the organizational culture. Getting involved in fundraising activities that you genuinely feel are worthy of your time and support demonstrates to others your commitment to the public good.

Next Month: How senior executives can repair their brand after a difficult organizational change.

For more than 15 years, Andrew Brown has helped senior executives develop and implement corporate communications for increasing revenues and enhancing reputations. He has brought to market more than 150 products in a dozen industries and has written more than 300 articles on product innovation, social media, marketing strategies and strategic alliances.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/executive/the-ceo-communications-toolkit-building-your-brand-as-a-strong-leader/feed0stdYou’ve managed to attract top talent, but can you close the deal?http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/youve-managed-to-attract-top-talent-but-can-you-close-the-deal
http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/youve-managed-to-attract-top-talent-but-can-you-close-the-deal#commentsSat, 03 Mar 2012 01:08:23 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=147123

In my last column I wrote about the importance of not only building and maintaining a strong employer brand — loosely defined as the way your company is perceived by current and prospective employees — but also broadcasting the merits of your workplace culture to the world via social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

So, what happens when, thanks to torrid success that’s left your staffers exhausted, delivered new opportunities seemingly by the day and turned hiring into a top priority to keep retention and growth levels high, you advertise a position and manage to attract the A-list talent you need to take your company to the next level?

Consider it mission accomplished on the employer brand promotion front. Now it’s time to extend an offer of employment to the best of those talented job hunters.

Trouble is, small to medium-sized business owners often drop the ball at this stage and lose great new hires to competitors because they’re not fully committed to the process. They fail because, in the course of running a fast-growing company, they neglect to dedicate the time and energy to properly vet those peak performers for cultural fit, woo them by selling the value of the position and the strength of the team they’re about to join, keep them engaged along the way and then seal the deal with a timely, enticing offer.

A couple of common scenarios can emerge: they lose the opportunity to recruit that hot prospect outright, or hire the wrong person and are saddled with a dud employee they need to fire in six months. Either way, it’s a burden on the business, as well as stressful on the entrepreneur as those seemingly endless rounds of interviews continue. This often causes the chief executive to work “in” the business as well as “on” it, putting extra pressure on their already challenged sense of work-life balance.

Bear in mind that recruiting your next star employee doesn’t have to be painful. In fact, hiring, which is best done collaboratively with existing staffers in the interview and final decision-making process, can have strategic benefits. It not only highlights your team’s strengths and weaknesses, but can provide the kind of insight that shapes future growth.

But it takes careful planning and execution to snag highly sought-after prospects. Ask yourself these questions before and during your next round of hiring, then watch that next star performer take your firm to new heights:

Why would anyone want to work for my company, and me, specifically? Be prepared to outline your vision, describe your leadership style in detail, and define your competitive advantage as an employer. This can include providing a comprehensive benefit package, perks such as flex hours and a generous vacation policy, right down to small, but significant, considerations such as consistent feedback, volunteer opportunities and a platform to provide ideas and collaborate.

Have I developed a comprehensive, direct, friendly, realistic and accurate job description? If not, start thinking and prepare a clear outline of the position to build buzz among both active and passive job seekers. And of course, be well-prepared to talk about the role for which the candidate is applying — not to mention their prospective responsibilities and career opportunities — the most exciting aspect of the team they’ll be working with, as well as your short- and long-term vision for the company.

I’ve advertised the job, but have I reached out to my community? The more top talent you can connect with, the greater the number of impressive resumés you’ll receive. Recruitment firms are an obvious option to help with that process, but connected CEOs should engage contacts, which could be everyone from existing employees to suppliers, on relevant social media channels to attract an impressive array of applicants. After all, many of today’s top young workers search for jobs and vet employers on their preferred social media channels first before turning to other platforms.

Have I done my pre-interview homework? Be sure to read each resumé in detail, prepare relevant questions and outline your objectives. Will the interview be a casual meet-and-greet or a formal investigation of the candidate’s abilities? Understanding your objectives will help determine how you prepare.

Am I ready to take the interview seriously? Top candidates are not impressed by unprepared interviewers — and they do pay close attention to details and use them to assess which companies are worthy of their talents. Treat every interview like it’s a business development meeting — be prepared, be on time, work at building rapport and, if you’re interested at the end of it, communicate your thoughts and ask if the candidate is considering any offers or actively interviewing with your competitors.

Am I prepared to fully engage with candidates? If so, follow up as promised, book second interviews quickly and maintain at least one to two email or phone touch points each week, then share more with them at each meeting. That can mean introducing them to your team, providing a tour of the office and even discussing key operational challenges with each round of interviews.

Am I ready to make that offer? Once thorough references are completed, proceed with an offer and come to the table not only with the compensation package you first dangled, but consider offering an extra bump or guaranteed bonus to help seal the deal.

Am I prepared to deliver on all of those promises? Be sure to hold yourself accountable on everything you’ve promised and you’ll have a much greater chance motivating and retaining that game-changing employee.

—Mandy Gilbert is chief executive of Creative Niche (creativeniche.com). She writes a monthly column for the Financial Post.

Today we launch a new monthly series called TheCEO Communications Toolkit, designed to address the most important communications issues and skills facing today’s senior executives, including: personal brand maintenance; post-reorganization brand repair; working with communications agencies; effective spokesperson communication; and, using inspiring communication to inspire your team.

One core skill for every business leader is the art of corporate storytelling. As humans, we are drawn to compelling stories, we learn lessons from stories that are told well and actively share them with our colleagues, networks, friends and families. To many business leaders — particularly those for who are more comfortable with numbers and spreadsheets than words sentences and paragraphs — storytelling is seen as ominous. But it doesn’t have to be.

Before you begin, remember that easily understood stories have a greater impact on your target audience, so use a structure and language that everyone can understand. Help your audience link your story to a greater context (e.g. a restructure, a merger, a change in market focus, etc.). Keeping you stories simple increases the likelihood they’ll be retold and shared, which is essential in today’s social-media savvy world.

In addition to clarity, there are a few key principles to keep in mind when developing your story. First, be sure to be clear about the lesson you want to convey and repeat it several times using examples of day-to-day work situations.

Once you’re satisfied with that your story is simple and the lesson is clear, make it a point to practice your presentation to a smaller, low-risk audience before going out to the entire organization. Choose an audience that will give you candid feedback, but also one that includes a representative of the target audience. Watch their faces as you present to them to see if they’re reacting as you would have anticipated and, if not, modify your story accordingly.

In some cases you may need to have more than one version of your story in order to appeal to the interests of different audiences or to conform to certain time limitations. Also, repeat your story at strategic times (a new hire, a new promotion, a restructuring, etc.) so that you create a sense of comfort and familiarity with the story amongst your teams.

Chris Carder, co-founder of ThinData, is an excellent example of someone who successfully used storytelling to grow the company into a successful email and social media agency. To learn more about his story, click here to listen to the podast.

NEXT MONTH: How senior executives can effectively establish and maintain their brand as a strong corporate leader.

For more than 15 years, Andrew Brown has helped senior executives develop and implement corporate communications for increasing revenues and enhancing reputations. He has brought to market more than 150 products in a dozen industries and has written more than 300 articles on product innovation, social media, marketing strategies and strategic alliances.

Related

“We see this as a drastic step by the board in restoring shareholder confidence in the company, and closing a valuation gap that has been presistent for several years,” said George Toriola, analyst at UBS.

He considers Mr. Reinhart capable, knowledgeable and very genuine, and expects the move will be well received by shareholders as the company searches for a new CEO.

Mr. Toriola also anticipates that investors will refocus on Nexen’s fundamentals, including its significant discount to the sum of its parts, its oil-levered assets, near-term growth and improving performance at Long Lake over the medium to long term.

With the Usan field offshore Nigeria possibly starting up late in the first quarter of 2012 at 36,000 barrels of oil per day, along with an improving performance at the Buzzard field in the North Sea, UBS considers the stock attractively valued.

Mr. Toriola rates Nexen shares a buy with a $28.50 price target.

Greg Pardy, co-head of global energy research at RBC Capital Markets, believes the news could signal a closing of the gap at which Nexen trades relative to its net asset value, which he estimates at $29.54 per share. The analyst has a sector perform rating and $25 price target on the stock.

“Over the past couple of years, we have met regularly with Kevin Reinhart, and look upon him as a competent CFO who tells it like it is,” Mr. Pardy told clients. “Although the Nexen story has been nothing to write home about for some time, the company’s step appears to be its first in the road to recovery.”

While the analyst thinks the appointment of an interim CEO may cause potential buyers to surface, he believes Nexen’s plan is focused on new leadership and a turnaround, “which could take years.”

Mr. Pardy anticipates that Nexen shares will get a lift as the market considers its fate. However, the analyst is making no changes to his outlook on the company until more information on its game plan is available.

It didn’t take long for the country’s news pages and social media circles to be abuzz with predominantly negative reaction to the latest report from socially oriented think tank, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Tuesday morning. The Ottawa-based organization revealed Canada’s top 100 CEOs had seen a salary spike of 27% in 2011 and now earn 189 times the average wage.

The result, says the report’s author Hugh Mackenzie, is a growing wage gap that, if left unchecked, will inevitably lead to social unrest, rising crime rates, diminished trust and worsening health. While the disparity between the average CEO’s wage and the average middle-class wage is unquestionably startling, it might be worth analyzing in greater depth the validity of the CCPA’s predictions of social unrest and its implication that these executives are unworthy of their wages.

First, let’s acknowledge that there is no great social upheaval taking place in Canada due to the wage gap or any other reason (nor is there one on the horizon). The occupy movement of yesteryear received limited public support and the protesters themselves made it painfully clear that they could not articulate what it was they were protesting let alone suggest a solution for it. Canada’s crime rates have been on a downward spiral during the very same period CEOs’ salaries have been on the rise. In fact, according to Statistics Canada, crime rates are at their lowest since the 1970s. And while people are less trusting of corporations after the 2008 financial market crash, this phenomenon is far from exclusive to Canada.

Furthermore, the roots of the world’s resentment toward corporations lie in the post-recession decimated investment accounts of Baby Boomers and the dismal job prospects of Gen Y rather than the compensation packages of the Canadian C-Suite. Canada has fared better than any other nation in weathering the recession and its citizens enjoy one of the strongest economies among OECD nations, so it’s not particularly effective to argue spikes in CEO salaries are destroying us from within.

Once you set aside the predictions of the CCPA, you’re left with the fundamental question of whether or not corporate leaders are worth their remuneration packages? The answer can be found in the back pages of the report itself. Mr. Mackenzie suggests CEO compensation packages continue to surge because corporation boards continually outbid one another to ensure they can attract the best talent. Therein lies the heart of the matter. CEOs are highly paid because the boards to which they report believe they are talented enough to be worth the investment. In other words, they are being paid their market value. Magna International CEO Frank Stronach topped the list of best-paid CEOs with a package of $61.8 million. To the average middle class worker, that number seems outrageous, but when you consider that Magna generated $24.1 billion in sales in 2010 under Stronach’s leadership, the number suddenly seems much less staggering.

Mr. Mackenzie further asserts that CEOs’ salaries continue to rise because their friends sitting on the corporations’ boards are rubber stamping salary increases regardless of the CEO’s performance. Yet, as the Toronto Star’s Josh Rubin noted, only 18 of the 100 CEOs saw their companies’ share prices fall in 2010. That means 82 of the top 100 CEOs oversaw an improvement in shareholder investment of their companies. Wouldn’t that mean the vast majority of Canada’s best-paid CEOs are performing well and deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour?

Not so says Mr. Mackenzie quoting business expert Henry Mintzberg, who says share price is not a fair measure of achievement because share price is based strictly on predictions of future performance, not past performance. Really? How often do investors reward corporate leaders who perpetually falsely predict a strong quarter ahead? CEOs, who are commonly paid a bonus through stock options, have a vested interest in seeing their companies’ stock prices rise and therefore perform in a manner that ensures they do. Cashing in on their own rising stock is their reward for solid corporate governance, not a form of “legal corruption” as Mr. Mintzberg alleges.

The CCPA seems to be vilifying our nation’s most successful business leaders with the implication that there is something inherently wrong about the accumulation of wealth for which we all strive. The think tank suggests rewards for business achievement should have artificial limits – such as salary caps via excessive taxation – rather than be set by the free market. That kind of thinking is what one would expect to find among pundits in the now-destitute economies of Greece and Italy, not in an enterprising nation like Canada. Our nation’s economy would be well served by keeping it that way.

]]>http://business.financialpost.com/executive/ceos-should-be-celebrated-not-vilified/feed0stdOPEL-MAGNATop Canadian CEOs make average worker’s salary in three hours of first working day of yearhttp://business.financialpost.com/executive/top-canadian-ceos-make-average-workers-salary-in-three-hours
http://business.financialpost.com/executive/top-canadian-ceos-make-average-workers-salary-in-three-hours#commentsTue, 03 Jan 2012 13:04:45 +0000http://business.financialpost.com/?p=128231

Another day, another dollar? For Canada’s top executives, it’s more like another half-day, another $44,366.

That’s how much the average member of the 100 top-paid chief executives of companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s composite index was projected to earn by noon on Tuesday, the first working day of this year.

That’s according the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which for the fifth straight year has measured how long it takes for Canada’s richest chief executives to make the average Canadian’s annual pay.

The think-tank based its report on data from 2010. Its previous report, based on numbers from 2009, showed the average CEO among Canada’s top 100 making the average person’s pay by 2:30 p.m. on the year’s first working day.

The latest report showed Canada’s top executives earned, on average, $8.4-million in 2010, including salary, bonuses, stock grants and options. That was up 27% from a year earlier. The average person, on the other hand, is actually earning less than during the 2008-09 recession, if inflation is taken into account, the centre said.

The report says those working minimum wage jobs on a full-time basis made an average of $19,798 in 2010.

Not only is the gap between the county’s elite money earners and regular people big, but it’s getting bigger, the report said.

“The average of Canada’s CEO elite 100 make 189 times more than Canadians earning the average wage,” the report’s author, economist Hugh Mackenzie, said in a statement. “If you think that’s normal, it’s not. In 1998, the highest paid 100 Canadian CEOs earned 105 times more than the average wage, itself likely more than double the figure for a decade earlier.”

The centre said no comparable data is available for the 1980s.

The report says inequality between Canada’s richest and the rest has been growing since the mid-1980s, reversing a trend since the 1930s that saw increasing equality between the rich, middle and poor.

Although not technically a CEO, the top earning executive on the centre’s list was Frank Stronach, chairman of Magna International until May last year. He made $61.8-million in 2010, more than $40-million of that in bonuses, the Centre for Policy Alternatives said.

The next two spots were also taken by Magna officials — CEO Donald Walker was reported as earning $16.7-million, and Siegfried Wolf, a co-CEOuntil November 2010, made $16.5-million.

The lowest-paid executive among the top 100 was Pierre Beaudoin of Bombardier Inc., whose compensation amounted to $3.9-million.

There was only one woman among these executives — Nancy Southern of ATCO Ltd. and Canadian Utilities Ltd. with earnings of $4.8-million, which put her in 85th place in the centre’s rankings.

The total compensation among the top 100 executives in 2010 was $838-million, the centre said. That’s more than the projected deficits this year for several provincial governments, including those for Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Ivanhoe Energy Inc., the Vancouver- based oil producer with operations in China and Ecuador, said Robert Friedland stepped down as chief executive officer. It didn’t name a replacement.

Carlos A. Cabrera and Friedland will serve as executive co- chairmen, the company said today in a statement. David Dyck will remain president and chief operating officer.

Friedland was Ivanhoe Energy’s founding chairman. Cabrera, who has served as CEO of China’s National Institute of Low Carbon and Clean Energy, joined the Ivanhoe board as an independent director in 2010.

Robert Abboud, the lead independent director, relinquished the position of co-chairman and will remain on the board, the company said.

TORONTO — Calvin McDonald has a three-year plan to turn around Sears Canada Inc., and even though most agree it will be an uphill battle to fix the struggling department store chain, the 40-year-old former Loblaw Cos. executive and marathon runner does not seem daunted by the prospect.

The new CEO of the retailer has been travelling the country to marshall the will of the company’s workforce of 31,000, listening to employee feedback and delivering a message about having “courage to change.”

Change is a must, given that Sears Canada has been steadily losing ground for years, with revenue, net earnings and same-store sales declining annually since 2006.

Consumer research still shows that Sears Canada is a trusted brand, Mr. McDonald said in an interview Tuesday at Sears Canada‘s head office in Toronto. But given the poor results, it is clear many people have been shopping elsewhere.

“From 2006 to 2010 we have lost about $1-billion [in annual] revenue,” he conceded.

Net earnings per share were down 56% in 2010, and in the most recent third quarter it posted a loss of $46.6-million, down from a profit of $20.8-million a year ago. Same-store sales – a key measure of retail health – fell 7.8%.

Before becoming chief executive six months ago, Mr. McDonald said his perception of Sears was of a retailer “that had lost its way … the stores were cluttered, [and] the things that were great were hard to find.”

Mr. McDonald says the final quarter of 2011 will be focused on what behaviour the retailer needs to change, including improving customer service and accountability, and focusing on products. He has board approval to begin refurbishing stores, and will upgrade four full-line department stores in the first quarter of 2012. Sears will also open four outlets of its Quebec-based appliance chain Corbeil in Ontario.

He did not disclose how much the retailer will spend on its store upgrades or the other turnaround initiatives.

Toronto retailing consultant Wendy Evans said some improvements are already evident, but many improvements could be made.

“The stores are looking so much less cluttered. But they haven’t got the overall assortment right,” Ms. Evans said. “Their fashion brands are less than exciting. The Bay is taking a big chunk out of Sears’ sales because they have the credibility of great brands and the thrill of the chase with some great prices on interesting and fun fashion.”

Sears Canada, which has 196 department stores and 280 hometown dealer stores across Canada, recently cut 70 people from its head office, which employs 2,000. Mr. McDonald has implemented a hiring freeze and did not rule out additional layoffs, saying he will evaluate the business over the next three years.

Mr. McDonald is implementing a five-point growth plan to be customer-driven, focus on internal talent and fix Sears Canada’s pricing strategy. That strategy has convinced too many customers to expect bargains all the time, said Ken Wong, marketing professor at Queen’s University school of Business.

“There are great bargains at Sears,” Mr. Wong said. “There is always stuff on sale and then customers will only buy when things are on sale. Nothing destroys your profitability faster than price cuts.”

Mr. McDonald cited the need to have more every-day value-priced items in the mix rather than a so called high-low pricing format based around driving volume from dramatic markdowns of full-priced items.

Mr. McDonald is even more under the gun to improve the picture at Sears, which is 96%-owned by U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp., as the arrival of Target looms in 2013. He said Sears Canada will focus on its traditional strengths such as appliances, where it had a 40% market share 10 years ago.

While it still has highest share in that category, it is “much lower,” he said, adding many categories still enjoy top market share “more by default than design.”

The real question, he says, is “is our market share equal to consumers’ perception of where to go to buy those categories? Where you have a disconnect is where you are vulnerable,” and there is room for improvement, he said.

If his resume after a variety of leadership roles at Loblaw Cos. for the past 18 years wasn’t enough to convince the embattled ranks that a fresh CEO with determination could revive the fortunes of the struggling department store chain, a recent company relay race might have done the trick.

In September Mr. McDonald, a triathlete who runs to and from work four days a week — a distance equivalent to a half-marathon — joined a 140-kilometre company relay. The London, Ont. native did three legs of it in a row, 30 kilometres, and placed second to the relay runners at the end of his trek.

You have to wonder where the oil sands sector might be today if Rick George hadn’t agreed two decades ago to fix what others would have considered a hopeless disaster.

Mr. George joined Suncor Energy Inc. on Jan. 1, 1991, when the oil sands business was an experiment, the company was one of the world’s highest cost producers, its chief executive was dying of cancer, and its plant in Fort McMurray had suffered a devastating fire and a 5 ½ month labour dispute.

Yet under his leadership, Suncor, the first company to invest in the oil sands half a century ago, pushed many of the innovations that made Alberta’s deposits what they are today: the world’s third largest oil resource, a magnet of energy investment, the engine of Canada’s economy. Meanwhile, Suncor’s market value grew to $50-billion, from $1-billion in 2001, as it took bold steps like launching its Millennium expansion when oil prices had sunk below $10 and purchasing Petro-Canada for $19.2-billion in the depth of the 2009 global recession.

While many contributed to the sector’s success, Mr. George’s leadership was so far reaching he is the sector’s father.

Mr. George, 61, announced his retirement Thursday after two decades as president and CEO. With his departure, the industry loses another one of its larger-than-life personalities, like Gwyn Morgan, Jim Buckee, Hal Kvisle, John Lau, J.C. Anderson, Jim Gray.

In a meeting with reporters, he displayed the same optimism in the oil sands’ future that he had in those early days as the industry faces even more challenges related to its impact on the environment.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” he said. “Part of it for us was borne out of necessity. It was pretty obvious in (1991) that we either got the oil sands fixed, or we would not survive. What came out of that was the drive to make the change necessary to make something successful.

“In this industry, we only got a critical mass of companies involved in the last ten years, as in-situ took off, as Shell came in and invested, and now we have all the international players come in, from the Chinese, all the European companies, including Total and Statoil. With that come very large R & D budgets.

“The technology changes that you are going to see in this industry in the next ten years, both in the mining side and in the in-situ side, in the land reclamation side, are going to be off-the-chart good.”

Born in Brush, Col., Mr. George and his family became Canadian citizens in 1996.

He is staying on as CEO until the company’s annual meeting in May. Steve Williams, 55, the company’s chief operating officer, has been promoted to president effective immediately and will succeed Mr. George as CEO.

The transition had been planned for years and the company is in great shape, Mr. George said. With the merger with Petro-Canada in the rear view mirror, debt down to $7-billion from $14-billion, earnings and cash flow at record levels, a ten-year growth strategy well under way, Mr. George said he felt it was time to move on.

Yet Mr. George is leaving at a time Suncor’s stock is depressed and analysts are concerned about its high costs and the reliability of its facilities. Its merger with Petro-Canada brought new assets in the oil sands and the East Coast offshore, but also troubled businesses in Libya and Syria that are have been disrupted by uprisings.

Environmental lobby criticism of the oil sands has never been higher, culminating in U.S. president Barack Obama’s decision last month to delay approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, while a major campaign against construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline is gaining momentum.

Mr. Willians said he plans to play a big role in pushing Suncor’s environmental agenda, within the company and in the industry, so that there is adoption of leading edge practices. At the same time, the company will be focused on delivering growth.

“Taking it from less than $2 billion to $50 billion has been an incredible achievement,” he said. “My challenge has to be to take it up to $100 billion.”

Russ Girling, CEO of TransCanada, finds himself in the eye of the storm, dealing with regulatory delays to Keystone XL Pipeline and investors who are nervous that its customers might ditch the pipeline in favour of competitors who have less regulatory headaches.

But the chief executive appeared confident that Keystone’s customer base is intact and the project remains in the best interest of the Unites States. He spoke with Yadullah Hussain after an Investor Day roadshow in Toronto.

Q Are you worried that Enbridge’s Wrangler pipeline would take away some of your customers due to the uncertainty surrounding Keystone XL Pipeline.

A Not at this point in time. I don’t think it’s a question of ‘either, or’.

There is growing production in Canada, the Bakken Fields and in the U.S MidWest and producers are going to need multiple options to get the products out. The logical market is the Gulf Coast, which currently refines nearly half a million barrels a day and imports 5.5 million barrels per day – so that’s where all the new production is going to go.

Producers will want to keep all their options open, because they are growing production and they don’t know how difficult it is going to be to access those markets.

So it is not an either or thing. I don’t think our producers are going to jump on to their projects.

Q So your clients haven’t been calling you…

A Our clients are supportive. They know this isn’t about our pipeline, it’s about access to domestic markets with domestic supply.

That’s what debate is about. It’s about fossil fuels in its entirety versus alternative energy. It is not about the siting of a pipeline.

That broader debate around fossil fuels isn’t going to go away. You can see production coming and it will all go different ways, they are going to need access to markets and they are going to look at West Coast and East Coast.

Q Now that you have stuck a deal with Nevraska, are you confident that you have complied with most of the State Department’s requirements?

A I think we just started the process. We have a better arrangement in Nebraska whereby the State Department and the Department of Environmental Quality in Nebraska are going to co-operate. But you are right, it is an important step in that direction but we are just getting started in that process. That leads to a final determination of a national interest review.

We now have a process to re-route out of Sands Hills. It will then be about national interest determination, which is supportive of the project given the U.S.’s energy security jobs, and economic stimulus needs.

Q In hindsight, do you think the company should have shown more flexibility on routing. Your stance previously was rerouting can not be out done, but the State Department Review suddenly resulted in a quick rerouting over the Sands Hill.

A The State Department was very clear that the review was not the result of technical issues, but the public concerns of Nebraskans surrounding Sand Hills.

All the way along we followed the rules of the process as they were laid out for us. We couldn’t have opened up the discussion to all the routes of the pipeline.

Now that the State Department narrowed its focus to Nerbaska Sands Hills, we have addressed it.

Outstanding CEO of the Year: The oil patch crusader
Patrick Daniel has successfully navigated Enbridge through a trying year, including criticism of its mega-pipeline project, lower energy prices and an oil spill in Michigan

The 2011 Bossies
The year might be remembered as the start of RIM’s decline, but there were plenty of other unexpected turns — and a few crafty moves as well

Star search
Grooming a potential CEO is tough enough when things are running smoothly, but it’s even harder to find a good one when the chief executive suddenly exits

Change is good
Investors may not like the direction the stock markets are heading, nor company execs, but it should be viewed as an opportunity to look at things in a new, perhaps more profitable, light. Many of the country’s top 100 CEOs are already doing just that

J. Michael Pearson – Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.
“We are always being questioned because we are going against some long-held beliefs”

The long-tenured chief executive is becoming a rare sight in today’s boardrooms because of tighter corporate-governance rules and a higher degree of impatience

Leo Apotheker had barely finished redecorating his corner office at Hewlett Packard Co. when he was ejected from the helm of America’s largest technology company after 11 months. Carol Bartz fared marginally better at Yahoo! She was fired via phone after 33 months on the job at the Internet giant. Rapid turnover in the executive suite has been accelerating for most of the past decade and the trend shows no sign of abating. Indeed, CEO churn is on the rise for those who are forced to leave, as well as those who depart voluntarily. The average tenure of outgoing CEOs from companies listed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index in 2004 was 8.5 years, according to data from the Board Shareholder Confidence Index, prepared by the Clarkson Centre for Board Effectiveness.

In 2009, the incumbency rate was 4.8 years.

A study of the world’s largest 2,500 public companies by Booz & Co. this year produced similar results. Overall, outgoing CEOs in 2010 were in their positions for 6.6 years compared to 8.1 years a decade ago. Even those CEOs who decamped voluntarily had shorter terms — seven years in 2010 compared to 10 years in 2001.

Clearly, the days of the imperial CEO are gone. Keeping the top job has become far more precarious. The reason: Chief executives are under more pressure to perform in shorter periods of time because the structures that had accommodated the long-tenured CEO of the past are slipping away. Some of the attrition can be chalked up to job-hopping. Some are hired on an interim basis to accomplish a specific task, such as Frederick “Fritz” Henderson at General Motors Co., who spent eight months after his hiring in 2009 steering the auto giant through bankruptcy. However, the main reasons for the high turnover stem from long-term trends in corporate governance.

For example, publicly traded companies, especially in North America, are increasingly separating the roles of chairman and chief executive. In 2010, 14% of incoming CEOs were assigned the dual roles, compared to 52% in 2001. As a result, CEOs are less likely to dominate the boardroom, set the agenda and control the flow of management information.
Although in theory CEOs have always served at the discretion of the board, that distinction has never been as stark as it is today. The result is a power shift that’s forging a new dynamic and redefining the way directors and CEOs interact in corporations.

A tougher governance environment has also made directors, appointed by shareholders to run companies that act in their best interests, more cognizant of their fiduciary responsibilities and the personal risks associated with failing to carry them out. As directors face greater scrutiny from shareholders and regulators, they’re redirecting some of the pressure downward to senior management. Thus, boards in general are becoming more critical and demanding of CEO performance and less patient about achieving objectives. Where a strategy is not working, boards appear more willing to pull the trigger.

The margin for error and the window for underachievers is narrower than it has ever been. Ask Donald Schroeder, who spent 20 years climbing to the C-suite at Tim Hortons Inc. only to be fired as CEO and president by the board after three years.

The ensuing tumult at the top is a victory for advocates of greater accountability. How CEOs navigate this brave new world will determine whether they can ever get comfortable in the corner office.

Ford Motor Co. of Canada made the announcement Tuesday it would be replacing its chief executive, David Mondragon, three years after he took the helm of the automaker’s Canadian division and guided it to the top sales spot in the country for the first time in more than 50 years.

Mr. Mondragon, who was appointed chief executive of Ford of Canada in August 2008, will assume the new role of general marketing manager for Ford and Lincoln in the U.S., the company said. He will be replaced as president and chief executive of Ford of Canada by Dianne Craig effective Nov. 1, it added.

“Dave’s contributions to Ford of Canada during the last three years have been significant. He led the team through one of the most tumultuous times in the industry and successfully grew the business, bringing new customers to Ford,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, in a statement. “This positive marketplace momentum will continue to build as Dianne shares her extensive dealer relations skills, sales background and marketing expertise with the Ford of Canada team.”

Ms. Craig was most recently the general manager for the southwest U.S. market, and has held various positions with the company since she joined Ford in 1986.

Mr. Mondragon’s return to the company’s headquarters in Dearborne, Mich., was the second such promotion this year for a top auto executive in Canada. Earlier this year, Chrysler Group LLC announced that in addition to continuing on as chief executive of the Canadian operations, Reid Bigland, a Vancouver native, would be tapped to lead the Dodge brand, and to run all sales strategy, dealer relations and operations, order facilitation, incentives and field operations in both the U.S. and Canada as part of management shake-up.

Carlos Gomes, a senior economist at Scotia Economics who covers the auto industry, said while it’s not typical for Canada executives to see these sort of promotions, it demonstrates that if they prove themselves in the Canadian marketplace, there are bigger things ahead.

During his three years as chief executive, Mr. Mondragon, a California native, managed to help Ford grow its market share from 12.5% in 2008 to nearly 18% year-to-date in 2011.

Along the way, Mr. Gomes said Ford was able to capitalize on the restructuring of GM and Chrysler and grow its sales through the recession in Canada by introducing a series of smaller vehicles that appealed to the market here.

“They took the overall lead in 2010 and are maintaining that lead through this year,” Mr. Gomes said. “It has definitely been an important milestone for them.”

Tim Hortons Inc. has decided that adding beef lasagna casserole to its menu will help fill the gaping hole in its lunch and dinner lineup.

For a company that commands 83% market share of all coffee poured outside of Canadian households, and 70% of the national breakfast pie, maybe a 10-oz. steaming pile of noodles, beef and grated cheddar cheese in a bowl or cardboard cup for $4.49 may not be that much of a risk.

It’s not like the baked goods and coffee giant hasn’t fiddled with its menu before. Over the better part of the past decade, Tim Hortons has been trying to entice folks with chili, soup and sandwiches in an attempt to gain ground from quick-serve restaurant giant McDonald’s.

Still, not all of its culinary tweaks have survived. Remember the slow roast beef sandwich?

No matter, this latest hot-bowl incarnation sounds like it has potential. Presumably, there are synergies in using the same infrastructure to make chili to also bake lasagna.

But ovens and cooking utensils aside, this latest food foray is about Tim Horton’s bigger challenges. Don’t look at the stock price, which is a big hit with retail investors. It punched through the $50 barrier last month, trading at multiples of 22 times earnings.

Even so, analysts say they just don’t see the growth prospects that live up to those earnings multiples.

The fact is, Tim Hortons is a victim of its own success. The chain has saturated the Canadian market and still has plans to add an additional 800 franchises to its existing 3,200. Future growth should come from new products, such as the lasagne, the company hopes will attract more traffic through its doors and drive-thru.

Inevitably, the future of this Canadian corporate icon lies in the United States, which has thus far been a wasteland. Past forays, starting with the merger with Wendy’s in the 90s, haven’t worked.

That is the reason a new CEO is likely to emerge from south of the border.

It may be hard to believe, but the ubiquitous Tims brand is nowhere in the U.S. and lighting up a handful of outlets in Manhattan isn’t exactly playing to its core customer base.

Tim Hortons has been learning the hard way that the quick-serve restaurant business in the U.S. is a ground war.

The winning formula that made Tim Hortons a beloved name in Canada may be useful only in real estate terms in America.

Forget about taking over defunct Dunkin’ Donuts outlets in Manhattan. The meagre success it has seen so far has been achieved through organic growth, as it’s done in other New York-based markets in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. The U.S. is densely dotted with thousands of small cities and towns with populations ten times the size of the ones that made Tim Hortons monolithic in this country.

Dunkin Donuts is the Tim Hortons of the U.S., so the Canadian chain is trying to reinvent itself as a bakery cafe with quality products and daily deals to placate those skeptical Americans.

What’s not known is who is going to lead the charge. Former chief executive Donald Schroeder, 64, was unceremoniously dumped in May in an apparent huff over succession planning. Executive chairman of the board Paul House has been doing double duty as acting CEO since Schroeder’s departure and earning $750,000 not including bonuses and stock options. Still, the 67-year-old, who had already been CEO for two years before Schroeder took over in 2008, is not the messiah to lead Tim Hortons bravely into the U.S.

Over at head office in Oakville, Ont., the folks at Tims aren’t saying much months after promising an external search to name a successor “as soon as practical.” Five months later, a company spokesperson said that “process continues and we have no further updates at this time.”

Most industry observers don’t expect the new CEO to come from inside the company’s ranks but no one will admit to it for fear of an exodus in the senior management pool.

Besides, an internal candidate shouldn’t take that long to identify, even if the Tims board failed to have a succession plan in place three years after hiring Schroeder.

The ideal external candidate would be a Canadian with more than a decade’s worth of experience in the highly competitive U.S. market. Good luck finding that needle in a haystack.

More likely, one of Canada’s most beloved companies will be entrusted to an American who has successfully fought in the U.S. trenches and who can convince the company’s board, employees, customers and shareholders that the winning formula at home won’t be surrendered to pitch a flag south of the border.

In the most recent entry of the LinkedIn Diaries, I identified some practical lessons that you can apply to optimize your success with LinkedIn by focusing on the profiles and practices of ING DIRECT Canada’s President, Peter Aceto and Claymore Investments’ President, Som Seif.

In this entry of the LinkedIn Diaries, I focus on the secrets of LinkedIn super users. These senior executives use LinkedIn more frequently, more consistently and more fluently than the vast majority of users. These super users, who have unearthed or reinforced some of the most critical LinkedIn practices, include the following:

Phil Soper. As the President and Chief Executive of Brookfield Real Estate Services and Royal LePage Real Estate Services, Phil Soper inspires a group of over 16,000 real estate professionals throughout Canada. Because many of these real estate agents have enthusiastically embraced social-media tools, Soper needs to serve as an example of best practices. As a result, several of his teams (e.g. Human Resources, Marketing) lead the industry in social media planning and execution. For LinkedIn, Soper’s super user secrets include the following:

Establish measurable goals. Whether you are focused on reducing the time required to find strong job candidates or increasing social mentions, set a goal that can be tracked. And then, track it.

Always remain authentic. Because LinkedIn connects people so well, it is essential that the image that you present online truly reflects who you are.

Share good news. Look for opportunities to profile good people, good news, exciting events and corporate success stories. For example, when a recent Royal LePage Shelter Foundation fundraiser exceeded expectations, Soper and his team enthusiastically shared the news via LinkedIn.

Jacoline Loewen. You wouldn’t necessarily expect that an internationally renowned author would be a LinkedIn super user. But, the fact is, Jacoline Loewen, Partner of Loewen & Partners, and writer of three highly-regarded business books, considers LinkedIn to be an essential tool for her short- and long-term success. For LinkedIn, Loewen’s super user secrets include the following:

Network Up. If you choose to share your updates with your connections, recognize that they see who you connect with. That means that if you want to be seen as being associated with leaders, only connect to those people who make your network look stronger and more compelling.

Broadcast your physical location. While any application that broadcasts your physical location needs to be used carefully, Loewen finds that by announcing her travel plans via LinkedIn, she gets invited to local events with business associates, clients and prospects.

Integrate with your other contact databases. Most busy executives have contacts and related information located in several applications, for example, a CRM application (e.g. Salesforce or ACT!), a database (e.g. Access), a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) an email program (e.g. Outlook) and other social media tools (e.g. Flickr or Facebook). As a result, keeping tabs on new developments can be cumbersome. Because LinkedIn arguably has the most current updates, use it as your primary source for contact information.

Ayelet Baron. One of the first people to adopt LinkedIn when the application was developed 10 years ago, Ayelet Baron, who is the VP, Strategy and Planning of Cisco Systems Canada refers to LinkedIn several times per day. Her LinkedIn super user lessons include the following:

Schedule LinkedIn time. Devote time to check in with LinkedIn regularly. One option is to keep a web browser open and logged into LinkedIn so that you can quickly review and asses your connections’ posts and profile updates. Doing so arms you with the ability to re-connect with people, send them useful links and build your own community by making connections within your network. Also, use the News and Signal functions to keep you up-to-date on topics of interest that you and your connections share.

Monitor competitors. Your competitors are following you, your colleagues and your company. So, use LinkedIn to do the same. Check to see what positions they are hiring for. This could hint at what new products or projects they are planning.

Leverage networks within your company. Identify a community of social media adopters within in your organization. When you see an article that captures your interest, use LinkedIn to share it with this community — while adding your insights, opinions or questions. Taking this approach typically sparks responses and connections with people in your social community and extends beyond. Also, actively promote and share posts from people within your network.

In the next issue of the LinkedIn Diaries, I will tackle the most common and thorny questions that executives face when optimizing their LinkedIn strategies.

Andrew Brown is president of Write on the Money. He helps senior executives harness the power of digital and traditional business communication tools (such as LinkedIn) and strategies.

The resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple Inc. prompted selling of shares in the iconic technology company, despite the fact that investors had time to prepare.

The management transition that will see Mr. Jobs move to the chairman role and COO Tim Cook take the reins as CEO should be a smooth one. At the same time, consumers will continue to buy Apple products. However, the intensifying competitive environment might have some investors worrying about “what’s next?”

Much like the departure of Henry Ford and Walt Disney – creative forces whose companies carried on for years – Apple without Mr. Jobs will carry on. However, it’s hard to believe Apple won’t be different, said Mike Abramsky, analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

While he thinks the near-term risks for investors are low, Mr. Job’s resignation as CEO may change Apple over time.

“Steve was involved in every detail of product, marketing, execution, deal-making (carriers, studios, etc.) and had the vision and gravitas to bet on
disruptive innovations,” Mr. Abramsky told clients. “Steve’s departure may precipitate Apple’s evolution from icon-led to team-led, from disruptive innovation to continuous innovation.”

He was also closely linked to the Apple brand and played an important role in recruitment and employee retention. Therefore, any key departures, organizational disruption, strategic missteps, margin pressures or gains by competitors could lead to share volatility, Mr. Abramsky warned.

The news is expected to create an attractive entry point for investors looking to add or build bigger positions in Apple, said Mark Moskowitz, analyst at J.P.Morgan. Yet while the news may weigh on Apple shares in the near term, he thinks the company’s model is “built to last,” sustaining a “digital way of life” that other industry participants have yet to rival.

Apple shares fell roughly 3% in early trading Thursday, after declining about 5% shortly after the news was announced early Wednesday evening.

The key, of course, is whether Mr. Jobs’ impact fades or is lasting. Under Mr. Cook, Apple will likely focus more on operational excellence through growth drivers such as global distribution and channel expansion, but Mr. Jobs’ approach wasn’t about cost cutting or exiting businesses.

“Mr. Jobs’ second term as Apple’s CEO drove a stunning recovery and then rise to dominance by constructing a world of mobile devices and content ubiquity,” Mr. Moskowitz said in a research note. “We think the
impact from Steve Jobs is lasting, cementing Apple’s role in the digital age.”

The day-to-day contributions of Mr. Jobs will surely be missed, but the level of creativity and intelligence among Apple’s management team and its legion of employees can sustain the company’s model and industry leadership, Mr. Moskowitz said. He does not expect too much to change within the organization, and feels the successes of the iPhone, iPad, iPod and MacBook Air reflect the work of many, not one.

Mr. Cook, for example, has been an integral part of Apple’s unprecedented growth in earnings and revenue, as well as in limiting operational disruptions. His knowledge of Apple and its rigid product cycles, supply chain and partners will prove valuable in maintaining the company’s market strategy.

As for the stock, Mr. Moskowitz noted the divergence in Apple’s valuation and consensus estimates in 2011. As both revenue and earnings per share estimates continued to see major gains, valuation multiples compressed. The analyst believe this reflected investors’ preparation for Mr. Jobs’ departure.

“In the near term, we expect the stock to be under pressure but not encounter a downdraft, as a CEO change has been partly discounted,” Mr. Moskowitz said.

REACTION FROM OTHER ANALYSTS

Chris Whitmore, Deutsche Bank

“We expect this news to pressure shares of APPL and we view this depressed multiple likely reflects a lot of this concern.

Looking forward, we believe risk is more likely to be centered around Apple’s 3-5+ year product plans if/when Jobs permanently departs.”

T. Michael Walkley, Canaccord Genuity

“We continue to anticipate strong earnings growth for Apple over the next several years with very strong demand and relatively low global market penetration for iPhone, iPad and Mac products.

Steve Jobs is a Silicon Valley legend… his resignation is not a complete surprise, and we believe Apple has a succession plan in place.”

Keven Dede, Brigantine Advisors

“Continued new product introductions point to the complete breadth of the team across all the company’s product lines.

The team that orchestrates the continued development of products across the company, we believe is undervalued by those deciding to divest under this leadership change announcement.

Given the extent of Jobs’ influence over Apple’s culture for the length of time he has led the company implies that he has imbued a sustainable culture within the organization that we see carrying on beyond his personal leadership. Each division of the company is responsible for bringing new, exciting, user friendly products to market, and we believe that course should continue regardless of Jobs’ presence at Apple. That said, as recent trading has illustrated, our belief is currently not well shared on Wall Street.”

Ben A. Reitzes, Barclays Capital

“While we do not believe that Steve Jobs is replaceable, it is worth noting that Tim Cook is a proven executive who can handle the pressure and knows how to run the inner workings of Apple in Jobs’ shadow. While the stock could see some immediate headline pressure, we expect sentiment to rebound through next year with strong execution and new product cycles.

We believe Tim Cook is a very talented executive that deserves a lot of credit for key Apple attributes that are not thought of as ‘Steve Jobs territory.’ For example, we credit Cook with spear-heading Apple’s successful efforts to streamline its supply chain after the tech bubble.

Tim’s focus on maintaining low inventory has contributed to Apple’s industry-leading cash conversion cycle as well. Tim has also served Apple well in negotiating component prices and build plan arrangements, resulting in industry-leading margins. One can assume that Tim has learned a lot from Jobs over the last 13 years on the innovation front. We believe Cook shares Jobs’ taste for simplicity and style – and will try to maintain the culture Jobs has instilled. Note that Apple also has other very talented executives including Head of Design Jonathan Ives and CFO Peter Oppenheimer.”